Ask the Coach: Lessons from a Did Not Finish

By Coach John Hughes

I started coaching my client Pete last March for the Hoodoo 500 in August 2018 in Utah. Hoodoo is a qualifier for the Race Across AMerica (RAAM). Pete had to finish in 48:45 hours including both riding time and time off the bike. He DNF’d in Panguitch at mile 380 after 38 hours of racing.

How long is an ultra event? Longer than you’re used to riding. If your normal weekend ride is 25 miles than a 100K is an ultra event for you. The lessons Pete learned apply to all roadies.

The 533-mile course with 31K of climbing goes through or near Zion, Bryce and Capitol Reef National Parks, Pipe Springs, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Cedar Breaks National Monuments and Anasazi, Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Kodachrome and Snow Canyon state parks. More information on the Hoodoo 500.

After the race he wrote me a very thoughtful e-mail and allowed me to share it with you.

Ten Lessons Learned

Pete:
I’ve been doing ultras for nearly ten years, and am always learning what can I do to move forward even further. These are in no particular order, except for the first one:

Lesson #1

Pete:
I had a few bites of watermelon. Shortly after I threw up, right at 100 miles. Early afternoon, hot but not too much. On a hill climb. I thought watermelon was safe. I had tested it on other 24-hour rides in the heat. That was the mistake. That was three years ago. I didn’t test it out this year, for this ride. And mixing it in my stomach with Sustained Energy, not tried before. Rookie mistake. That led to a chain reaction of dry heaves for 25 hours or so. And only keeping Coke down, which worked.

Coach Hughes:
His crew sent me a text early Sunday morning 22 hours into the race about Pete’s GI problems and said that he could only stomach Coke. My advice: keep giving him Coke. Some riders think that consuming simple sugars like a soft drink will cause the blood sugar to rise and then crash. That’s true sitting around the living room. However, when riding, a caffeinated soft drink provides almost instant energy — it’s a favorite of pros — and as long as the rider keeps consuming simple sugars the blood sugar won’t crash.

Lesson #2

Pete:
With your on-course advice, it did not become a showstopper, as by mile 360 I was eating potato chips again. But it cost me time.

Coach Hughes:
A fundamental rule: before an important ride: test everything in training. Nothing new during the ride.

Lesson #3

Pete:
This was my first Hoodoo 500. I studied the route, memorized it and every turn. I used visualization to see where I was, where I was going, what the turns looked like, what the hills would look like (Google maps). But I made the mistake of only looking and viewing the route. I did not put myself in the place of actually feeling the route. Plus, I didn’t pay enough attention to each climb, what it entailed, the difficulty level, how I would feel. Some of the major climbs took me by surprise. I wasn’t adequately prepared mentally, though I did well on the climbs, slow but steady, nonstop.

Coach Hughes:
Looking at and viewing the route is planning. Visualization is feeling how you are riding different sections.

Lesson #4

Pete:
Along with visualization, I needed to visualize the hindrances and potential showstoppers. Not just the route. Visualize that I’m throwing up. OK, how does it feel, what am I doing next? Visualize that I have a flat. How do I react? I have a mechanical issue. Saddle sores start to appear. I start cramping, etc. Live the bad parts in my mind as well as the good parts. Creates fewer surprises on the course.

Coach Hughes:
Yes, but. You want the visualizations to put you in a positive frame of mind. It’s good to visualize problems and how you react but do this in the early visualizations. As you get closer to the race visualize success.

Lesson #5

Pete:
Ask people about a new route. The roads were rougher than I had imagined. There was a lot of traffic. Shoulders were quite narrow or absent in places. All that was a surprise. Ask people who’ve been there before. Reduce the surprises.

Coach Hughes:
If you had time before the race you could have driven the course. If someone were available to drive the car you could have ridden the climbs to familiarize yourself. Visualization includes visualizing conditions: narrow road with no shoulder, rough surface, headwind, rain, etc.

Lesson #6

Pete:
In preparation near race day, I got too wrapped up in stuff and not on myself when I should have been visualizing and resting. Arranging stuff, buying last minute stuff, packing stuff, hotel and travel details. That part of it took over my thinking at a critical time.

Coach Hughes:
Could one of your crew taken care of some of the logistics? Or another friend or family member? Could you have done the tasks sooner?

Lesson #7

Pete:
Another rookie mistake, the stops at controls started to stretch out as the ride progressed. [The rider / crew has to check in at periodic controls.] I did the first 100 miles in 7:30 hours, a good pace. The crew handed me bottles as I rode by so I didn’t stop much. Need to plan and visualize the controls. Count 1, 2, 3, 4…we’re done let’s get moving. Need to drill that again and again. Also a time sink.

Coach Hughes:
During daylight you didn’t have to stop at the controls. Your crew could check in while you kept riding. At night you also had to stop because you weren’t allowed to ride in the dark without your crew driving behind you. As you learned once you stop it’s harder to get going.

Lesson #8

Pete:
I was prepared to ride my own race. But once we began that went out the window. Need to remind myself, pretend no one else is out here. Hoodoo is much more crowded than the Race Across Oregon relatively speaking [a RAAM qualifier, which Pete had previously raced]. My automatic thoughts kicked in, how can they be going faster, should I pick up my pace, I can pass this one on the next climb, where did he come from, and on and on. Oh my, now that I think back on that. Ride your own pace.

Coach Hughes:
Pacing is part of visualization. When I visualized the 750-mile Boston-Montreal-Boston and then set a course record I didn’t know anything about the course except that there were steep hills early in the ride, then three sustained climbs and then flat to Montreal — and back the same route. I knew there were stronger riders and I visualized them riding away from me on the steep hills and visualized catching them one by one. I started with the fast group in BMB and I was dropped by everyone. By dark I had slowly reeled each of them in. I also visualized getting in and out of controls quickly.

Lesson #9

Pete:
Crew alignment and training. I had a great crew. Each of the two had crewed for me on different races but the two of them met for the first time the day prior to the start. We had one conference call a week earlier. It took a little time to coordinate with each other. We were working on the fly for most of the race, which cost some time as well. Toward the end, the crew also had a near disastrous accident, as someone just missed rear-ending them by inches as they were parked waiting for me. They were quite shaken up by that.

Coach Hughes:
The crew can’t make the race but they can sure break it! If possible every rider should have a long simulation ride with the crew to practice every detail. If I tell a rider to do a 12-hour ride with the crew I don’t care how far or fast they go. The purpose is to discover and resolve all the potential issues.

Lesson #10

Pete:
After 38 hours crew fatigue was setting in as well. We all had just an hour total sleep at that point: a 30 minute nap, and two 15 minute ones. Safety was a factor in DNF’ing in Panguitch as well.

Coach Hughes:
Safety first! You need to plan for crew sleep breaks before the race so that each one gets at good nap before dark so both are ready to drive through the night and each one then gets a good nap after dawn.

What Went Right

Pete:
The biggest plus of this ride was the condition I was in. Toward the end I feared that I would bonk at any minute, having consumed mostly only Coke. But I had no feeling of bonking. At the end, I still had the legs and lungs to continue. I managed the hill climbs well. In the 80 miles or so of headwinds the second afternoon, I just slogged on. But most of all, the morning after the DNF I was not sore at all. No muscle soreness. No pain. No cramps. Just slightly stiff as if sitting in chair for too long. That’s all a direct result of the changes you helped me make over these past several months. Physically, I was there. I was, and am, in excellent condition.

Coach Hughes:
DNFs are rarely the result of inadequate training. They result from all these other factors.

Pete:
After 380 miles, I had no saddle sores. Your advice helped, and I found a routine from a RAAM rider. Every four hours I washed with antiseptic liquid soap, dried off. Applied foaming Neosporin. Patted dry, then applied Chamois Butt’r.

I weighed in every four hours. I lost six lbs. the first part of the ride after heaving, but it leveled off after that. I watched fluids closely, was light headed just once.

Coach Hughes:
You weighed about 190 lbs. Six lbs. weight loss = 3% dehydration. 2% dehydration is nothing to worry about. 3% or more may start to affect performance … or it may not. The pros get dehydrated and then still sprint hard at the end! You did the right thing and started drinking more. On the other hand if you were gaining weight this meant that you were retaining fluid. The more fluid you retain the more dilute your blood sodium, a potentially fatal condition called hyponatremia. If you were gaining weight then you should have stopped drinking until you had urinated out the excess fluid.

Overall I’m very proud of Pete. Pete gave it everything he had. Only four of the 11 starters finished. The 10 factors above cost him enough time that he couldn’t make the time cut-off at the finish.

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Coach John Hughes earned coaching certifications from USA Cycling and the National Strength and Conditioning Association. John’s cycling career includes course records in the Boston-Montreal-Boston 1200-km randonnée and the Furnace Creek 508, a Race Across AMerica (RAAM) qualifier. He has ridden solo RAAM twice and is a 5-time finisher of the 1200-km Paris-Brest-Paris. He has written over 40 eBooks and eArticles on cycling training and nutrition, available in RBR’s eBookstore at Coach John Hughes. Click to read John’s full bio.